Brief summary of the paper: Size-selective harvest of fish and crustacean populations has reduced stock numbers, and led to reduced growth rates and earlier maturation.

In contrast to the focus on size-selective effects of harvest, here, we test the hypothesis that fishing may select on life-history traits (here, growth rate) via behaviour, even in the absence of size selection.

If true, then traditional size-limits used to protect segments of a population cannot fully protect fast growers, because at any given size, fast-growers will be more vulnerable owing to bolder behaviour.

We repeatedly measured individual behaviour and growth of 86 crayfish and found that fast-growing individuals were consistently bold and voracious over time, and were subsequently more likely to be harvested in single- and group-trapping trials.

In addition, there was some indication that sex had independent effects on behaviour and trappability, whereby females tended to be less active, shyer, slower-growing and less likely to be harvested, but not all these effects were significant.

This study represents, to our knowledge, the first across-individual support for this hypothesis, and suggests that behaviour is an important mechanism for fishing selectivity that could potentially lead to evolution of reduced intrinsic growth rates.